Lucretia Evans

1920 - 2022

Lucretia Evans
December 4, 1920 - January 13, 2022
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania - Lucretia Wood Evans, 101, passed away peacefully on January 13, 2022, at Crosslands, a Quaker-affiliated retirement community located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where she had lived for nearly nine years. Lu and her late husband, Dr. William E. Evans, lived for 38 years in Crossville, Tennessee, where Bill practiced medicine and Lu was a dedicated mother, homemaker, and community volunteer. In 1991, Lu and Bill moved to Foxdale Village, another Quaker-affiliated community located in State College, Pennsylvania, where Lu lived for 22 years before moving to Crosslands to be closer to family. In all her communities and throughout her life, she was deeply committed to working for social justice and world peace.
Lucretia Way Wood, daughter of the late Galen Wood and Verna Way Wood, was born on December 4, 1920, in Chrome, New Jersey, which later became part of the city of Carteret. She grew up near Media, Pennsylvania, and was a 1938 graduate of Westtown School, a Quaker boarding and day school, and of the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1942 with a degree in Education.
Following World War II, Lu worked from 1946 to 1953 with the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia, Finland, Germany, and Cherokee, North Carolina. In the autumn of 1948 she was a student at Woodbrooke, an adult education center near Birmingham, England, featuring Quaker and international studies. A lifelong pacifist, Lu worked throughout her life to prevent war and heal the wounds of war. She volunteered through the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the American Friends Service Committee, engaging in and promoting phoning and writing letters to senators, representatives, and presidents to help make our war-torn world a more peaceful one.
Lu and Bill were married on October 3,1953. They loved living and raising their four children on a beautiful farm in Crossville, Tennessee, alongside Bill's twin brother, Jack, his wife, Bette, and their six children. Lu was a loving and kind mother, sister-in-law, aunt, and friend. She was also an energetic and dedicated organic gardener, cook, and volunteer at Cumberland Medical Center, Cumberland County Beautiful, Cumberland County Playhouse, and elsewhere in the community.
After Lu and Bill moved to Foxdale Village, they delighted in connecting with Lu's relatives, as well as old and new friends. They explored nature by canoe and bicycle in the area where Lu's mother had grown up. During that time, they returned often for visits with family and friends in their longtime beloved Tennessee home.
Over the many years of their marriage, and especially in their retirement years, Lu and Bill spent considerable time at the Evans family cottage in Southwest Harbor, Maine, where they had deep roots. They loved sharing this wonderful place with family and friends, hiking, canoeing, sailing, and exploring the natural wonders of Acadia National Park. Their hospitality, including Lu's delicious home-cooked meals featuring home-grown vegetables, local fish, and her legendary strawberry-rhubarb crisp, was enjoyed by all. Her children and their families carry on these traditions.
Lu had a lifelong love of botany and the out-of-doors. She was passionate about gardening and cultivating wildflowers and trees. Later in life she thoroughly enjoyed painting with oils, watercolors, acrylics, and fabric paints, expressing her deep connection to the natural world by creating beautiful paintings and quilts. She delighted especially in painting coastal Maine landscapes and wildflowers, which she gifted to numerous family and friends as tangible reminders of her love for them and her appreciation of our shared natural environment.
Lu and Bill were lifelong members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In their early years in Tennessee, they were instrumental in starting West Knoxville Friends Meeting, Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association, and later Crossville Friends Meeting. Lu was actively engaged with State College Friends Meeting and State College Friends School during her years at Foxdale Village and then with the Crosslands Friends worship group. At the time of her death, Lu was a member of nearby Westtown Monthly Meeting at Westtown School.
In living her life with love, integrity, faith, courage, generosity, and commitment, Lu has been a guiding light and inspiration to her children and spouses, grandchildren, and the wide circle of family, friends, and caregivers with whom she established and maintained meaningful, ongoing connections. True to her wonderful nature, and in typical fashion, she was interested in and inquiring about the well-being of others even on the morning of her passing. Lu lived a long, healthy, and fulfilling life and adapted to the challenges of aging by graciously accepting support from the staff at both Foxdale Village and Crosslands. She has given us lasting gifts to carry in our hearts and out into the world through our actions. Through all those she loved, and who loved her, her Light will continue to shine.
Lu is survived by her four children, Jonathan Wood Evans (Melissa Graf-Evans) of Gradyville, Pennsylvania; Cynthia Evans Trueblood (Peter M. Trueblood) of Oakland, California; Rebecca Evans Marvil (Joshua D. Marvil) of Yarmouth, Maine; and Deborah Susanne Evans (Ronald C. Schaaf) of Ashland, Oregon; and eight grandchildren, Eliza Evans Schaaf, Rachel Graf Evans, Cayla Evans Marvil, Wilder Evans Schaaf, Hannah Graf Evans, Isaac Evans Schaaf, Jeremy Graf Evans, and Matthew Evans Trueblood. Also surviving are almost 100 nieces and nephews of multiple generations on both sides of the family.
Lu, the last surviving Evans-Wood family member of her generation, was preceded in death by her husband, Bill, on December 29, 2008; sister Elmira Wood Stark (James R. Stark); brothers Edward Galen Wood (Gertrude Sandau Wood) and G. Theodore Wood (Kathryn Jantzen Wood); and brothers-in-law Jonathan Evans (Elizabeth Evans Halverstadt), Arthur Evans, and J. Morris Evans (Anne Tall Evans).
Plans for a memorial Meeting for Worship to honor Lu's life will be shared at a later time. To be notified when details are confirmed, add your email at http://eepurl.com/hSjtuD.
Memorial contributions may be made to Westtown School (westtown.edu), the Friends Committee on National Legislation (fcnl.org), or the American Friends Service Committee (afsc.org).